Five Snowstorms
by nandamai
Summary: Into every wintry tale a little snow must fall.


**1\. Markt**

Tosh and Ianto were slowly getting drunk on _glühwein_ as they trailed Jack in the Cologne Weinachtsmarkt. They'd already found the artefact they'd come for - a bracelet that had been handed over quickly and apologetically once its owner had heard the word "Torchwood" - and it was in Tosh's pocket, emitting not a trace of energy. Their flight home wasn't until morning.

So Jack was doing his Christmas shopping. Tosh, who'd bought all her presents during a trip to Japan last spring, was people-watching and had so far heard seven different languages, including Japanese. Ianto, she noticed, was primarily watching Jack.

It was difficult to avoid watching Jack, if she was honest. He loved any kind of holiday or festival and his already outsized personality was bubbling over. He'd mowed down several vendors with his charm.

Jack waited for them to catch up to him at a woollen goods stall, and then bought them two matching violet pom-pom hats. He also handed another bag to Ianto.

"Jack, really -" Tosh started. The hood on her coat was protecting her well enough from the snow, and the _glühwein_ helped. But they were all having a nice time, and she didn't want to argue with Jack - both he and Ianto had been nothing but kind to her since Mary - so she thanked him and added the hat to her pocket.

"You shouldn't have, sir," Ianto said.

"Wear it now, give it to your sister later," Jack said, and was gone.

Ianto turned to Tosh with an exasperated smile and an eye roll, handed her his cup and Jack's purchases to free his hands, and put the hat on his head. He looked adorable. Jack looked back at them to make sure they were still following and his grin practically glowed when he saw Ianto.

Jack's next gift to them was chocolate, extravagant little wooden boxes tied with ribbons and sealed with wax. Tosh's eyes boggled as she saw the prices on display in the stall.

"Milk and white for you, and dark for you," Jack said. "And extra dark for you-know-who."

Tosh rolled her eyes this time. She was fond of Myfanwy, but Jack spoiled her rotten.

Ianto seemed to agree. "Jack, you cannot spend that kind of money on our pterodactyl."

Jack smirked and took off again. Ianto watched him with a fond expression before his gaze dropped down to Jack's backside, where, Tosh realised, it had rested for most of the evening. She looked at Jack, several meters ahead of them, and back at Ianto.

_Oh._ Well, that was interesting.

Or possibly disastrous. Her first instinct was to hope that Jack wouldn't hurt Ianto. Her second was to hope that Ianto wouldn't hurt Jack. Her third was to wonder how many of their three hotel rooms had been slept in last night, but she didn't even let that thought thoroughly form.

Ianto was strong enough to survive Canary Wharf, and smart enough to con Jack; there wasn't much he couldn't handle, even if he still needed help believing that at times. And Jack loved bragging about how much he himself could handle, even if Tosh only believed a very small fraction of it.

Besides, as Owen had reminded her not so long ago, it was none of her business. Talk about playing gooseberry in the office.

"Oh, no," she heard Ianto say.

"Hmm?"

"Tosh, look down."

She did. Around her was a perfect circle of violet-coloured snow. She looked up, and it was still falling.

The woman who'd given them the bracelet had called it a "calorifier," and told them it created a personal weather shield. They'd assumed the name had something to do with calories, energy, but evidently they'd been spelling it wrong.

"That is the most pointless thing I have ever seen," she said. She reached into her bag for her rift detector while Ianto put a finger to his ear to call for Jack.

"Maybe you should give me the hat," Ianto said. He frowned. "Or the bracelet. I'm not sure."

Before Tosh could respond, Jack came back to them at a run, spraying snow up behind him. He stopped in front of her and stared.

"That is the most pointless thing I've ever seen," he said. "But I knew it would be a gorgeous color on you."

**2\. Farm**

Jack looked over his shoulder as he heard the SUV door slam.

"I'm fucking melting, Harkness," Owen said. "No way am I staying in there."

"Tosh doesn't seem to mind," Ianto said.

"Tosh is too excited about her translation program to care. She's taken most of her clothes off, anyway."

Jack saw Gwen and Ianto smile at each other out of the corner of his eye. Gwen leaned on her shovel and rubbed her hands together. "Are they okay?"

"Seem to be. All warmed up and chatting a storm."

Jack looked up into the falling snow and the wet, heavy flakes quickly settled on his cheeks. "Bad choice of words, Owen."

"Yeah, I'll give you that. What can I do out here?"

"We're just about done," Ianto said. "Just waiting for Rhys with the lorry."

The spaceship was one of the smallest Jack had ever seen. Luckily, it had crashed in a field outside Abergavenny, and it had avoided the neat veg patch and three goats belonging to the farm's owners, a lesbian couple who'd escaped there from London. Unluckily, it had contained eight tiny humanoid aliens, no more than a foot tall, who called themselves Altakiun and came from the tropics on their planet.

By the time Torchwood had arrived, all eight were badly hypothermic and two were clinging to life. Tosh, Gwen and Owen had hurried them into the SUV and turned the heat up slowly; the aliens' medic, who had brought a tiny medkit from the ship, saved the two worst off while Owen watched, fascinated. Now they were happily talking with an equally happy Tosh.

"Owen, go check the farmhouse and make sure they're still sedated," Jack said. The owners hadn't seen much, thanks to the dark and the snow, but he'd given them a mild dose of Retcon anyway.

Jack turned back to Ianto, who was juggling a rift meter, a metal detector and a torch to triple check that they hadn't missed anything, and Gwen, who was shovelling snow to cover the site. "We should get them back to the Hub as soon as possible," he said.

"It's freezing in the Hub, Jack," Gwen said.

"Not in the hothouse, it isn't." Jack saw two large headlights drawing near and added, "There's Rhys. Gwen, when Owen comes back, I want you, him and Tosh to go and get the Altakiun set up. Ianto and I will drive with Rhys."

Gwen had been shivering quietly almost since they'd arrived; Jack knew she got cold more easily than he or Ianto did, so it made sense for the two of them to stay. She gave him a grateful smile. Then she kissed Rhys hello, climbed into the SUV with Tosh, and drove off as soon as Owen joined them.

"Well, boys," Rhys said, rubbing his hands together. "Work to do!"

Jack glanced at Ianto just in time to see the eyebrow raise, and mouthed the word "eager." Ianto acknowledged him with a little smirk and put on his most placid expression before turning to Rhys. "Work to do," he agreed brightly.

By the time they got back to the Hub, the hothouse had been turned into a lounge, with a mattress, a television, and more than enough cut-up blankets for all eight Altakiun, and the ship's captain confirmed that her crew were all doing well. They had allowed Owen to scan them, so he was entering the results into his computer, while Tosh and Gwen were still talking their guests. Ianto took orders via Tosh's translator and took Jack off to Asda.

By the time the aliens left, three weeks later, with a repaired ship and as many sultanas as they could squeeze into the hold, Tosh had created an entire Altakiun-English dictionary. Too bad they lived four galaxies and several thousand years away, so no one would ever get to use it.

**3\. Mine**

"That's not right," Jack said forlornly, as they stared out from the mouth of the mine into a sea of white.

"Welcome to Wales, Jack," Ianto said. "Sometimes I don't believe you've lived here as long as you say you have."

"I was away for long stretches!"

"No excuse. It does snow here, you know."

"I know that. That's why we're - wait." Jack's lips pursed in a classic Harkness tell.

"That's why we're what, Jack?"

"I, well." He shuffled his feet. "It was meant to be romantic?"

"Getting snowed in an abandoned mine is romantic?"

"No! I thought we'd get to the hotel first and then get snowed in. They said it would start after midnight!"

Ianto took a deep breath and counted back from ten. It was just so Jack.

"What? We can never get away. They'll have to get by without us if we're stuck." Jack wrinkled up his nose as he watched Ianto's reaction. "It was a really nice hotel," he added.

"Jack."

"We can still get there. We'll just have to drive slowly."

"On these mountain roads? No, Jack, we're stuck."

"My intentions were good?"

Ianto felt himself soften. He was a sucker for that look. "Your intentions were good," he agreed.

Jack rebounded with a big grin. Sometimes Ianto swore Jack had been a golden retriever in another life. A big, slobbering, crotch-sniffing, tail-wagging golden retriever. He said, "I'll go get the emergency supplies," and bounded out into the snow, towards the SUV.

Ianto turned back into the mine, casting his torch around the walls, and sighed. They'd wasted more than two hours exploring the tunnels.

He should have known Jack was up to something. Someone had broken into the old zinc mine, and local residents had been reporting strange noises inside. Never mind that local residents had been reporting strange noises inside for decades; Ianto's gran had grown up in the area, and regaled him and his sister with stories. ("Your gran left food out for the fairies," Jack had said. "That didn't make her a bad person," Ianto had countered.) Never mind that the mine was more than 150 miles from the rift. Jack had insisted that Torchwood, and only Torchwood, needed to investigate, and had warned off the local constabulary.

At least now Ianto knew why. Mystery solved.

Jack bounced back in with Ianto's overstuffed knapsack and two sleeping bags. Like a good Welsh boy, Ianto had a healthy respect for mines and always came prepared. "It's a good job you insisted on packing supplies," Jack said as he dumped them in the corner.

"Isn't it, though?"

Jack frowned, like he'd lost his stick, and Ianto resolved to give him a break. "Sorry. I'm over it now."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I _am_ sorry," Jack said. He pulled Ianto close by the belt loops on his jeans, and kissed him. It helped.

Then Jack pushed him up against the wall, and that helped even more.

"As charming as this is," a voice said, some time later.

Ianto had his stun gun out and aimed in a fraction of a second. Jack, whose Webley was lost in the puddle of silk and wool at his feet, was less efficient.

A tall, familiar, pink-haired form was leaning against the wall. "Thwarp!" Ianto said. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Jack finally aimed in the right direction.

"I'd ask you the same," Thwarp drawled, "if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

"Just answer the question," Ianto said as he tucked his weapon into the back of his trousers, and himself into the front.

Thwarp shrugged, a gesture his species was not built for, and said, "I live here."

"You live in Swansea," Jack said darkly, though Ianto could tell his heart wasn't in it. Thwarp was harmless, except to the punters who didn't pay up at Ladbrokes, where he worked. He paid taxes. He was on the neighbourhood watch.

"Call it my holiday home."

"You're supposed to report to us when you leave town," Ianto said. And then, "Jack. Pants."

"What? Oh. Thank you." He bent to pull up his clothes, and Ianto rolled his eyes.

Thwarp took a step closer. "I had no idea the two of you were an item. You're adorable."

Jack said, "Shut up and explain," whilst he straightened his braces.

"Oh, fine, be that way. A few meters east of the lowest tunnel is a vein of uranium that hasn't been discovered yet. I like it."

"The uranium," Jack said.

"My planet is very radioactive. Have I mentioned I was a shaman back home?"

He had. "Right," Ianto said. "Are we safe in assuming that the broken chains and ghostly moans are down to you?"

"How would you like it if you kept coming home to find the locks changed? As for the moaning, well," and his skin turned a bit green, which Ianto assumed was a blush, "I told you. I like the uranium."

"That's just disturbing," Jack said. Ianto silently agreed.

"Less disturbing than the two of you rutting in my front garden. Look, I can't stop you from staying up here. But I can offer you a reasonably comfortable guest room and coffee you won't drink, in exchange for not booting me out."

"We're not going to boot you out," Jack said. "Can you be quiet for one night?"

"Can you?"

Ianto said, "Thank you, we'll take you up on that," before Jack could come up with a suitable innuendo.

**4\. Home**

When Jack's wristband beeped, it felt like they'd been asleep about ten minutes. Jack checked the clock, blinking green on Ianto's side of the bed, and found it had been two and a half hours: close enough.

"Ungh," Ianto said. "No."

"Yes, sorry." Jack kissed him on the temple and dragged himself up against the headboard. Ianto always seemed younger in the morning, before his mask kicked in.

As he'd expected, the message was from the Kyrari, a friendly species of anaconda-sized amphibians. The translator didn't catch everything, but Jack understood that they'd arrive in four days.

"Plenty of time," he said to Ianto, who'd started sitting up himself. Jack tried to push him back down. "Go back to sleep."

"You need to send them a reply."

"Four days. It can wait."

"You're meeting with the PM the day after tomorrow."

"Again, it can wait. Sleep."

"The two sick weevils in the cells -"

"Are Owen's job, and Owen doesn't sleep anymore. Ianto, none of it is urgent. When I gave us all the morning off, that included you and me."

Ianto groaned and stretched and settled back down. Jack joined him, but he could tell by the tension in Ianto's muscles that he wasn't sleepy anymore.

"He was heavy," Ianto said. The Kyrari they hadn't been able to save, he meant. He shuffled around a bit, still stretching one arm.

"He was. Roll over and I'll rub your shoulders."

It worked, as Jack had known it would. He straddled Ianto's back and got to work, to the tune of a few grateful moans.

He tried to massage the past crazy week out of Ianto's muscles and his own mind. It had started with a report of a disappearing and reappearing village that Jack refused to investigate because he'd seen Brigadoon too many times, and ended with Shisush, a gregarious Kyrari who'd lived long enough to give them a frequency to contact his people, but died in great pain despite Owen's best efforts. His body hadn't fit in one morgue drawer and had required some quick reengineering, plus a lot of lifting.

In between there'd been a scuffle with a new UNIT commander who just wanted to prove she could stand up to Jack Harkness; a thirty-fifth century virus that had put Gwen and therefore Rhys in bed for four days; and a sentient plant who'd settled himself in the National Botanic Gardens in Llanarthne on holiday. At least the plant had transmatted away three days later, as promised. Jack had been thrilled, three hours ago, to sleep away from the Hub for the first time that week.

He finished with Ianto's left shoulder, the one that always knotted up first. "Still sore?"

"Better now. You want a turn?"

"Maybe later." Jack rolled off him and flopped onto his back, and Ianto turned to rest his head on Jack's shoulder. "You're not going back to sleep, are you?" Jack asked.

"Sorry. You?"

"Not if you're not."

Ianto kissed him before standing and walking to the window. "Still snowing," he said, peeking outside. "Just enough to keep the weevils in the sewers."

"Thank god for that."

Five minutes later, Jack gave in to the inevitable and got out of bed himself. Once Ianto was up, he was up, and once he was up, he was already halfway to work. He'd never liked this flat and preferred to spend little time there. But Jack still wasn't used to having someone - Owen - to cover all the night shifts, so he tried to make both nights and mornings last.

He took the second turn in the shower, and when he found his way to the kitchen, Ianto was pouring the coffee into travel mugs. It took Jack a moment to notice that Ianto was wearing jeans. Jeans, hiking boots, and a plum-coloured cashmere jumper Jack had given him not long ago.

"I like," Jack said as he accepted his coffee. He waved a hand up and down to take in the whole of Ianto's new sartorial statement. "You wearing that to work?"

"You know I'm not. Breakfast at Popty?"

Popty made Jack's favourite doughnuts; he could stay there for hours and subsist on the smell alone. He grabbed their coats and hurried Ianto, who laughed at him, out the door.

Outside it was just after dawn, one of those strange but welcome winter mornings when there was no wind blowing off the Channel, and the snow, tinged orange in the east, was falling straight down. Jack felt something unfurl in his chest as they walked and the cold air filled his lungs. Ianto's leather-gloved hand, warm from the coffee, found Jack's bare fingers, and squeezed.

**5\. Bay**

The wind was high and the water rough, the jetty creaking in the waves. Ianto held his cargo, wrapped tightly in three thermal blankets, close to his body.

"No, Jack, I can't do it," Mick said. "One trip there and back, and I'll likely just make that before it moves in."

"But -"

"I've no choice, Jack. It's a risk as it is."

Ianto watched Jack's face screw up as he measured the options: a night on Flat Holm, or a night alone in their house. Jack had always hated staying overnight on Flat Holm, even before; the guilt was too heavy there, no matter how many times Ianto told him he was doing the best he could for the residents, more than any previous Torchwood director. Normally, Ianto and Jack would go to the facility, spend a few hours settling their guest in, and Mick would return to ferry them back, whatever the hour.

"Shh," Ianto said as the girl in his arms started to stir. "It's okay. You're okay."

But Jack, ever since - since his long sleep, as Jack called it, and Tosh and Owen and the brother whose name they never said aloud, Jack hated to be alone. He clung to Ianto, and they slept with the radiator on high and the curtains wide open.

Ianto thought he'd never be able to put much of a dent in Jack's guilt, but he might be able to work on the fear. Jack's face was turned to the side, so Mick wouldn't see, and Ianto ached.

"Give us a moment?" Ianto said to Mick, and led Jack a few feet away.

"Every minute you waste will make this harder," Mick said over the wind.

Ianto turned back to him with his best smile. "I know, I'm sorry. We'll be quick."

"Ianto," Jack said, arms crossed over his chest as if to ward off the cold.

"Stay." Ianto leaned in close. "It'll be okay. I'll take care of her and we can stay on the phone all night if you want."

Jack worked his jaw. "I hate feeling like such a child."

"You're not a child. No one who knew would blame you. It's okay."

Jack drew the blankets away from the girl's face. Her name was Aditi, and she was four years old. Ianto hadn't even had a chance to file her missing person report in the archives; it had only been a few weeks, and not much longer for her, as far as they could tell. Her injuries were treatable and though she hadn't said a word yet, hadn't done much more than cry, she'd reacted when they spoke to her. She was sedated now, for the journey, but she could be rehabilitated, unlike most humans the rift spit out. It was just a pity her parents hadn't come back with her.

"She'll pull through, Jack," Ianto said. "She's strong."

"I know." Jack didn't look up. "You'll be okay?"

"Yeah. Go to Gwen's, if you need to."

Jack tucked the blankets back around the girl's head.

"Boys!" Mick called as the snow started to fall.

"Go," Ianto said. "I'll ring you as soon as we get there."

Jack kissed him with his eyes open, lingering, and Ianto climbed onto the boat with a steadying hand from Mick. He stood in the stern and watched until Jack was out of sight, then he took the little girl inside.


End file.
